Saturday, February 16, 2008

What do you do with an old 1986 Suzuki GSX-R1100 that can no longer keep up with the latest litre-class superbikes from Japan and Italy? Take it to ShowYo Moto, who’ll readily convert it into a streetfighter – like the Manga-inspired ‘Alien’ you see here.

ShowYo Moto have been in the business of creating custom-built motorcycles since 2005. For this 1986 Gixxer, the idea was to create something that looked like it had just walked off the sets of a horror movie. Indeed. And a lot of hard work has gone into building the bike – the front and rear fenders and the headlamp unit alone took more than 50 hours of modeling! And talking about detailing, the front fender is made of nine different pieces, some made of stainless steel and the others made of lightweight composite materials…

If you're into the whole streetfighter thing, the Alien will probably appeal to you

While the headlamp unit, mini-fairing, radiator covers, belly pan and both fenders are custom made, the fuel tank comes from a 2006 Yamaha FZ1 and the tail unit if off an R6. The GSX-R1100 engine gets racing cams, a DynoJet Power Commander, K&N air filter, and custom made ShowYo Moto exhaust. Finally, the bike was painted by Extreme Graphic, in Canada.

For more pics and details on the GSX-R1100 Alien, as well as ShowYo Moto’s other custom bikes, visit their website here.

Friday, February 15, 2008

Based in France, Noré Sébastien is an airbrush artist and once you’ve had a look at these pictures of various Ducatis, MV Agustas and BMWs below, we’re sure you’ll agree he’s rather good. Sébastien says he always looks for perfection in his work and that he’ll paint your bike any which way you fancy.

As you’d imagine, Sébastien uses high-grade paints and coatings and durability is guaranteed. If you live in France and fancy having your bike – or your trike, your helmet, your guitar or pretty much anything else – repainted, we’d suggest you get in touch with this airbrush artist who seems to have magical skills. Get his contact details on his website here.

Some new pics of the 2008 Ducati Monster 696!Pics: Moto RevueAnd since this is turning out to be a picture-heavy post anyway, here are some absolutely smashing pics of a 2008 Repsol-replica Fireblade. It's HOT!Pics: Motoblog

Thursday, February 14, 2008

The Lamborghini Countach (left) provided the design inspiration for the Lamborghini Design 90 (right) motorcycle. Lambo should have stuck with cars, eh?

When you first think about it, a Lamborghini motorcycle seems like a damn good idea. For a company that’s made cars like the Miura, Countach, Diablo, Murcielago and Gallardo, how bad can a Lamborghini motorcycle be? Well, as you can see from the pictures here, quite terrible really…

Back in 1986, Lamborghini got into a tieup with French racing bike constructors, Boxer Bike. Based in Toulouse, in France, Boxer Bike were known for their expertise with hand-built racebikes, which supposedly used a lot of aerospace technology in their stiff, lightweight and sophisticated chassis. And along with Boxer Bike, Claude Fior, well-known for his work on alternative front suspension design, also worked on the Lamborghini motorcycle, which was actually made in France rather than in Italy.

The Lamborghini Design 90 was actually made in France and fitted with a Japanese engine...

The result of this alliance between Lambo and BB was the Design 90. Fitted with a DOHC, 16-valve, 1000cc, 125bhp inline-four (sourced from Kawasaki), the Lamborghini Design 90 weighed about 175 kilos and had a top speed of 250km/h. The bike’s styling was supposed to ‘evoke the spirit of the legendary Countach,’ and while we don’t know about that, we do think it looks horrible – almost as bad as the first Morbidelli 850 V8.

Today, Boxer Bike seem to have disappeared with a trace, and while Lamborghini continue to make some pretty astonishing supercars, they’ve apparently decided to stay off bikes for good. Which is just as well, given the complete disaster which the Design 90 turned out to be. According to some reports, Lamborghini had initially announced production of 25 units of the Design 90, but ultimately only five or ten units (the exact number remains unverified) of this bike were built.

Looks awesome, huh? Thank god Lambo only made a very of these... :-D

In 1986, the Design 90 cost about US$13,500. Today, the market value of this ultra-rare Lamborghini is said to be around US$50,000 - 75,000. Of course, you aren’t very likely to ever see one of these Lamborghini bikes in your neighbourhood. Which is quite all right really – we’ll just take this Rizla-rep GSX-R1000 and be happy for the rest of our lives…